Judge lays into prosecutors, SBI; deception, fraud decried

Durham prosecutors and the State Bureau of Investigation violated the U.S. and state constitutions and state law by withholding key evidence from Derrick Allen in the 1998 sexual assault and death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, a judge ruled Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, using unusually strident language, said the actions of the state’s lawyers and analysts were willful, intentional, deceptive, fraudulent, flagrant and egregious.